Users of Webroot’s endpoint security product, consumers and businesses alike, had a nasty surprise when the program started flagging Windows files as malicious and Facebook page as phishing site.
Webroot’s update, however, went bad and changed the way antivirus software work. Although the firm pulled the update, it still caused its users, including companies and businesses, a big headache. According to the official Webroot forum, the update affected thousands of devices worldwide.
The problem is what’s known in the antivirus industry as a “false positive” — a case where a clean file is flagged as malicious and is blocked or deleted. False positive incidents can range in impact from merely annoying — for example, when a program cannot run anymore — to crippling, where the OS itself is affected and no longer boots.
Windows users were not the only one who watched Webroot’s antivirus going rogue. The update also marked the social media giant, Facebook, as a phishing website and dangerous for users to visit it. Here’s a screenshot shared by one of the users showing how Webroot blocked access to Facebook by labelling it as a phishing website:
Good news is that the issue has been solved and the users have got their files back, however things would be otherwise if Webroot has permanently deleted system files rather than temporarily removing them.
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